Majoring in American Studies

Majoring in American Studies

Our American studies program is one of the strongest in the country, and every year it is among the top majors at Connecticut College. We focus on two critical issues: race and ethnicity and the role of the United States in the world. The program is innovative, dynamic and interdisciplinary. After you complete the core requirements for the major, you have the opportunity to concentrate on comparative race and ethnicity; expressive arts and cultural studies; or politics, society and policy. You also participate in community service, fieldwork or an internship. Our graduates are shaping thinking about critical issues in government and non-governmental organizations, and in graduate studies and academia.

Personalized learning

You shape your own experience through the courses you choose, as well as through your honors or independent study project. Student research topics have included the representation of adolescent sexuality on reality television and its impact on behavior, a critical look at dolls created for young girls in America, and a comparison of religious tolerance in France and the United States.

International opportunities and study abroad

American studies majors have examined the role of American culture in the de-Nazification of Germany as well as the impact of Eastern European training methods on American sports. A course on immigration took students to the Texas/ Mexico border, where they lived with local families. Our civil rights seminar has traveled to important locations of the African-American freedom movement.

Learn more about Connections, Connecticut College's innovative new curriculum.

A Glimpse at American Studies

Courses You Could Take

AMS 201 Introduction to American Studies

A multi-disciplinary approach to the study of American culture and society.

AMS 206 Theorizing Race and Ethnicity

This course employs a comparative approach to introduce students to concepts and theories of race and ethnicity.

AMS 215 Politics and Culture in the United States Since 1917

A survey of the economic, social, and cultural dynamics of globalization from its many origins in the first millennium to the present.

AMS 270 History of Sexuality in the U.S.

This course charts the idea that sex has a history and examines how the study of sexuality connects with larger themes in U.S. social, political, and cultural history.

AMS 450 Latin American Immigration

The movement of people within Latin America and of Latin Americans abroad.

AMS 465 Globalization and American Culture Since 1945

An exploration of the impact of increased American economic, cultural, and military presence throughout the world since the end of World War II.

People You Might Work With

Virginia Anderson

Assistant Professor of Theater

Virginia (Ginny) Anderson joined the theater faculty in 2013 after four years at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where she directed for the main stage and taught a variety of theater history courses including theater history survey courses, Women in Theater, African American Theater History, Children’s Theater, Theater in the United States, and LGBTQ Theater. At Connecticut College she teaches Theater and Culture I & II, Musical Theater in American Culture, Practical Dramaturgy, Theater of the AIDS Epidemic, Theater for Young Audiences, and production directs. She serves on the steering committee for the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy and as a core faculty member of the Public Health Pathway.

MaryAnne Borrelli

Professor of Government

MaryAnne Borrelli's courses include U.S. Government and Politics (GOV 111); Congress (GOV 212); Gender and U.S. Politics (GOV 250); Politics of Bureaucracy (GOV 284); and Culture, Politics and the Environment (493A).

David Canton

Associate Professor of History, Director of the Africana Studies Program

David Canton believes that African-American urban history illustrates the impact of racism, classism, and sexism in the black community. It also provides insight to the origins of 20th century black urban poverty, civil rights struggle, black class formation, and black community development.

James T. Downs

Professor of History, Director of the American Studies Program

Jim Downs is a historian of the United States. His current book project, "The Laboring Dead: From Subjugation to Science in Global History," under contract with Harvard University Press, investigates how colonialism, slavery, and the American Civil War contributed to the development of epidemiology. He was recently an Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellow at Harvard University, where he gained training in medical anthropology. While at Harvard, Downs was also a fellow at The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History.

Sandy Grande

Professor of Education, Director of the Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE)

As a teacher and scholar, Sandy Grande centers her work in the belief that education is the heart of a critical democracy. She asserts that questions about education cannot be reduced to disciplinary parameters, but must include issues of power, history, self-identity and the possibility of collective agency and revolutionary struggle. Thus, rather than reject the language of politics, Professor Grande constructs teaching as the link between public education and the imperatives of democracy.

Cherise A. Harris

Associate Professor of Sociology, Chair of the Sociology Department

Cherise A. Harris teaches Race, Gender, and the Mass Media; Ethnic and Race Relations; Sociology of Inequality; Sociology of Racial Identity; and Middle Class Minorities. The second edition of her newest book, Getting Real About Race (co-edited with Stephanie M. McClure, Georgia College) was published by Sage in 2017. Her first book, The Cosby Cohort: Blessings and Burdens of Growing Up Black Middle Class, was published in 2013 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Nancy Lewandowski

Ellen Maloney

Michelle Neely

Assistant Professor of English

Michelle C. Neely's research and teaching focus on questions of nature, culture, and democracy in American literature before 1900. As an assistant professor at Connecticut College, Neely has built on her environmental, animal studies, and food studies expertise by developing courses for interdisciplinary contexts such as the Environmental Studies Program and the American Studies Program, and by teaching a wide range of courses in American literature before 1900.

Julie Rivkin

Professor of English, Chair of the English Department

As an English professor, Julie Rivkin works on American literature and literary theory, and recently turned her attention to issues raised by gender studies and contemporary literature. She is probably best known for her work on Henry James: her book False Positions: The Representational Logics of Henry James's Fiction (Stanford University Press, 1996) offers approachable yet theoretical readings of James's novels.

Catherine M. Stock

Barbara Zaccheo Kohn '72 Professor of History

Catherine Stock is the author of Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain. She is also the author of Main Street in Crisis: The Great Depression and the Old Middle Class on the Northern Plains, plus the introduction to Dakota Territory, 1861-1889: A Study of Frontier Politics, by Howard Roberts Lamar.

Anna Vallye

Assistant Professor of Art History and Architectural Studies

Anna Vallye’s research explores the histories of modernism in art and architecture as it intersected with changing social and political institutions, as well as with cultural transformations in urban life. She is especially interested in how twentieth-century regimes of political administration and governance in Europe and America influenced the professional identities of architects, designers, and planners, their work, and the physical organization of the urban fabric. More broadly, this relationship illuminates how expert knowledge has shaped the spaces of everyday life.

Why American Studies?

Student Interview

Carter Goffigon

Student Interview

Q: Why American Studies?

A: Like most freshmen, my interests were all over the place. But I was interested in the experience and history of people. I also wanted to nurture my interest in art, culture and gender studies. A friend suggested I look into American Studies. I took the intro class with Professor [James] Downs and was hooked.

Q: Which class has been most challenging or rewarding?

A: The "19th Century America" seminar. We read an entire book each week, developed an analytical argument and wrote a short response paper. Crafting an insightful and organized analysis was by no means easy, but it was so rewarding. The nine of us in class met weekly for an exhausting and thrilling three hours led by Professor Downs that strengthened my skills as a historian, writer and thinker.

Q: What independent or faculty-led research have you done?

A: A ConnSSHARP grant gave me the opportunity to work with Professor Downs on his book about cholera, epidemiology and transnationalism in the 19th century. I spent the summer analyzing documents in the NY Public Library and the NY Academy of Medicine, and met with Professor Downs regularly to discuss my findings. I gained invaluable insight into the research process and what it means to be a historian as I move ahead with my own honors thesis: Domestic Kitchens in 19th Century America.

Courses You Could Take

Introduction to American Studies, Theorizing Race and Ethnicity, Politics and Culture in the United States Since 1917, History of Sexuality in the U.S., Latin American Immigration, Globalization and American Culture Since 1945

Rural radicalism, domestic terrorism; Social, cultural and political history of the United States, 1877 to present, including the American West; Rural America

Anna Vallye, Assistant Professor of Art History and Architectural Studies

M.A., Ph.D., Columbia University; B.A., Vassar College

History of 20th century architecture; History of urban planning; Interwar avant garde art and architecture

What Our Graduates Are Doing Now

Changing Our World Inc.

Associate Director of Fundraising

City of Contra Costa

Deputy Public Defender

MTV/ VH1

Music Coordinator

UCLA Anderson School of Management

MBA Program

State of Connecticut

Public Health Investigator

Facebook

Product Operations Specialist

Connecticut Bank & Trust

Foreign Exchange Trader

About Connecticut College

Connecticut College educates students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society. A leader in the liberal arts since 1911, the College is home to nationally ranked programs for internships, community action, arts and technology, environmental studies and international studies. Our beautiful 750-acre arboretum campus is located in the historic New England seaport community of New London.

CONNECTIONS is Connecticut College's reinvention of liberal arts education. It is a new kind of curriculum that lets you integrate your interests into a meaningful educational pathway, to carry you through college and into a fulfilling, effective career and life.